Geolocation, Next Phase of the Social Media Revolution, Focus of June 14 Workshop at WPI

Speakers include chief technology officer for Verizon, director of business development for Nokia Research Center, and CEO of Skyhook Wireless

Speakers include chief technology officer for Verizon, director of business development for Nokia Research Center, and CEO of Skyhook Wireless

Mobile geolocation has arrived, and akin to the rapid evolution of social media, it is expected to grow dramatically within the next few years and radically change how people interact and shop, and how businesses connect with and market to consumers. Already, more than six million people have signed up for new services like FourSquare and Gowalla to keep track of their friends' whereabouts or search for nearby merchants and deals using their cell phones. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are adding location-based features, and Google, Yahoo, and other search engineers are gearing up to serve ads based on a user's location.

All of these services take advantage of the ability of many modern cell and smart phones to determine their precise location, and marry those location capabilities to advances in data mining and the explosion of social networking services. Leaders in these technologies and senior executives from technology companies that are driving the geolocation revolution will gather at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on June 14, 2010, for the second Invitational Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices. The workshop, which will run from 9 to 5 p.m. in the Campus Center Odeum, is sponsored by Skyhook Wireless and VIA Telecom.

"Location is central to the mobile user experience and device performance," said Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook, who will speak at the workshop. "Location is no longer confined to traditional navigation and social networking apps. Soon all mobile applications will be enhanced with location awareness. This workshop is an important opportunity to assess the state of the technology that is enabling this revolution, and discuss where that technology is heading."

"Location technology is now a core element in wireless communications," notes conference general chair Kaveh Pahlavan, professor of electrical and computer engineering at WPI and director of the university’s Center for Wireless Information Network Studies, "and that technology is taking the mobile communications industry in exciting new directions. At this workshop, we will bring the leaders in this field together to explore the challenges the industry still faces, and to look to the future of cellular networks and smart mobile devices."